Federal prosecutors want former New Orleans City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt to start serving a four-year prison sentence next month, closing a gap of more than three years between her corruption conviction and when she will actually report to a lockup.

A successful appeal of her sentence and other court maneuvers have allowed Pratt to shave years off her prison term, and, so far, to avoid starting it.

But, prosecutors said in a motion filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle should ignore her latest request to put off the day she begins serving out her sentence. Gill Pratt has argued she should stay free until after a judge rules on the appeal in the Danziger Bridge case, the unrelated federal prosecution toppled by prosecutor misconduct.

Gill Pratt, indicted along with several members of convicted former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's family, had made a bid for a third trial, arguing that jurors in her case were biased by inflammatory online comments made by federal prosecutors, an argument which won a new trial the police officers accused of gunning down civilians from the Danziger Bridge after Katrina.

Lemelle last month denied Gill Pratt's bid for a new trial after interviewing several jurors who said they were regular readers of NOLA.com, the website where the postings were made, and found the jurors weren't influenced by the comments. Pratt was ordered to report to prison by Sept. 2. Pratt has appealed that ruling.

The decision to throw out the verdicts against the five officers has been appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and, federal prosecutors noted, might not be ruled upon for some time. Several other defendants in high-profile federal prosecutions, including former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, have made unsuccessful attempts to overturn their cases based on the commenting scandal.

"Pratt gives no legal or factual reason justifying an open-ended stay of her surrender date, especially when her theory rests on an undecided ruling in an appeal of a separate case of which Pratt was not part," prosecutors said.

"Because of the different defendants and issues, the number of defendants and the posture of the case as a government appeal, it is unknown when the Fifth Circuit would even be in a position to decide Bowen."

Gill Pratt, who also represented New Orleans in the Louisiana legislature, was indicted on charges of steering millions to not-for-profit groups headed by members of Jefferson's family. Her first trial ended with a hung jury. At a second trial in 2011, she was convicted and sentenced to more than seven years in prison, a term that was reduced to four years on appeal.